Maifleur:

In my humble opinion, there's only one place to visit and that is the absolutely wonderfully delicious Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

Here's a link to their main web site:

http://www.mobot.org

and if you wish to explore their usefulness with regard to various plants, flowers, herbs, and, of course, peonies, check out the link below.

It's a direct link to the Kemper Center for Home Gardening with reference to a peony that I am interested in purchasing for our garden. The Kemper Center for Home Gardening is one of the great fringe benefits of this extraordinary garden.

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=Q260

Bill

Mobot has many plants and has an extensive system for information. But did not have an extensive or varied number of peonies when I last visited. I do realize that each garden can only have so many plants. I like to go various places to see what grows best in certain areas and what I have never read or seen before. An example is Kingswood Gardens had Dutch Dwarf a plant that I plan to add to my breeding program. There are many breeders that have never registered a peony with the APS but have donated them to their local garden or garden society. Those are the ones I wish to see. You can enter peony gardens and come up with a list but that list only has ones that are on the web or have publicity about them on the web. I will also be wanting to know who breeds peonies and where. Not all breeders are members of a group such as APS some just breed for the fun of it.

Dear Maifleur,

I have visited the CENTRO BOTANICO MOUTAN in Italy (near Rome) that have the larger collection of MOUTAN (MUDAN) TREE PEONY and SPECIES of Europe. It is a very large area, about 15 hectares, of TREE PEONY cultivation.

It's a wonderfull place where you can buy all the varieties and species that they cultivate.

If you want you can visit their web site:

www.centrobotanicomoutan.it

Ciao

Fabio

Linda Hall Library on the campus of the University of Missouri, Kansas City has a large collection of tree peonies.

For Linda Hall the peonies start about the first of March with the last ending bloom the first of May. After the construction is over and you have access to the south portion of the grounds visit the beds of herbaceous. Making certain you look at the trilliums in the woodland bed on the southeast corner. That is if they have not been moved because of the construction.

Hi,
A must-see in Holland is 'The Gardens of Appeltern' in Appeltern, the Netherlands. On an acreage of over 20 acres it contains many display- and modelgardens. Specialized growers and gardenproduct companies exhibit their plants and products in a very tranquil environment. We from Warmerdam Paeonia have planted two large peony borders containing nearly 70 varieties and about 250 plants.
And while you're in Holland, you can't miss the Keukenhof of course (www.keukenhof.nl) - the world's largest flowerbulb display!

Here is a link that might be useful: The Gardens of Appeltern